Lori Grimes (Comic Series)
Lori Grimes is a character first encountered in Issue 2 of Image Comics' The Walking Dead and is the wife of Rick Grimes and mother of Carl Grimes and Judith Grimes. She is one of the main survivors from the camp located outside of Atlanta. Pre-Apocalypse Cynthiana, Kentucky Lori was friends with Rick's brother, Jeffrey, throughout high school. Jeff brought her to a New Year's party at Rick's college where he was studying police administration. The two had hit it off instantly, and after she had dropped out of her freshman year of college, they began a serious relationship. The two were married and had a son, Carl. They lived an average life in Cynthiana, Kentucky, with Lori being a housewife and Rick being the breadwinner of the family as a Sheriff's Deputy. During the onset of the outbreak, Lori took Carl to assumed safety in Atlanta, where her parents lived, accompanied by Rick's partner and best friend, Shane. Post-Apocalypse Days Gone Bye Along the way to Atlanta, Lori becomes increasingly emotional and is dreaded with guilt over "abandoning" Rick at their town hospital while in a coma. Eventually, Lori is so depressed and desperate for closeness that she has a passionate one night stand with Shane on the highway, which may have resulted in the conception of her baby, Judith Grimes. She constantly regrets their act and laments in how great of a mistake she had made. Upon arriving in Atlanta, and finding the city overrun by the undead, she, Carl, and Shane meet up with other survivors and encamp outside the city limits near a quarry. Lori slowly forces herself to accept the idea of Rick being gone, and starts to enjoy life more (though still remains conflicted over her feelings for Shane). She befriends most of the other women in the group and they all perform daily duties together, such as washing clothes and looking after the children. Lori is overjoyed when Rick miraculously returns, and tries at all costs to hide the secret, her regrets becoming even stronger now knowing that he was alive while she offered herself to another man. Shane continues to make advances toward her, to which she attempts to ignore, but, tensions between them rise as danger becomes more imminent to the group. She becomes disgusted at Shane as she sees him both verbally and physically assaulting Rick. Her resentment toward him pushes the man over the edge and ultimately leads to his death. After his funeral, she, her family, and the remaining Atlanta band leave for safer areas of habitation. Miles Behind Us The tenuous situation worsens when Lori discovers, by counting her missed periods, that she's pregnant. The likely possibility that her baby may be Shane's weighs down on her, but, she fights to remain strong for both her family and the rest of the group. Carol offers her comfort, which makes her keep a more positive mindset. She begins to experience things like morning sickness and mood swings, which amuse Rick and Carl, but, frustrate her to no end. She and Rick are devastated when Carl gets shot, and fear for his life as he lays unconscious for several hours at Hershel's Farm. During their brief stay at the property, she's made aware that Dale might know about her and Shane's love affair, and is advised by him not to say anything to Rick about her encounter with Shane no matter what, as he fears her husband may "crack". She and everyone else enjoys the luxuries of Hershel's home, while she continues to deal with her pregnancy. Their lives appear stable until she learns that they'd soon be ordered to leave, which infuriates her and leads her to confront Hershel in a brash and demanding manner. As a result, she's almost slapped by him. Instead, he ends up putting a gun to Rick's head, which forces them all to leave (much to her anger). Safety Behind Bars Lori and the remaining survivors settle into the Prison rather quickly and attempt to rebuild their lives. As her pregnancy gets closer to the birth, so does her physical pain and emotional state. She and Carol constantly remain close to one another, providing each other with support and developing a much closer bond. Despite the secure shelter they're living in, she remains wary of the few inmates that are holed up in the facility with them. Her distrust towards them gets even stronger when Hershel's daughters are murdered. She automatically pins the blame on Dexter (due to his previous record of killing people) and has him locked in his cell. Only later does she realize the mistake she's made of locking up the wrong person. Even though Dexter was innocent of the twins' murders, Lori is still hesitant to accept him into their group, and rightfully so, because no sooner after he's free does he attempt to force the group out at gunpoint. Life for her is devoid of any genuine danger for a while and she and the others take advantage of what the prison has to offer (being able to take fresh, warm showers, watching her fellow group members play basketball in the gym, etc.) The Heart's Desire Her relationship with Carol begins to become strained, as she takes notice of Carol's increasingly odd behavior (which came as a result of her recent break-up with Tyreese). It puts Lori in an incredibly awkward position and she's left not knowing what to do. When she tells Rick about this, he attempts to convince her to accept Carol the way she currently is. She tries to, but, it becomes difficult; even more so when Rick and some of the others have gone out to Woodbury, which leads to her carrying a great deal of stress and anxiety. She tries to hide this from Carl as best as she can and put up a tough facade. Carol eventually proposes a three way marriage with her and Rick, which she bluntly rejects. She very quickly grows sick of Carol's interactions, and at one point flips out at her and refuses to see her for a few hours. Lori realizes shortly afterward the error of her ways and attempts to befriend Carol once again, being able to accept her. Shortly before Carol commits suicide, she makes Sophia Lori's surrogate daughter. After the suicide, Lori is in a state of mourning along with everyone else and is depressed from the lack of her company. She promises to keep her word about Sophia as a sign of respect to Carol. The Best Defense With Carol's deteriorating state, she begins to start acting bizzarely towards Lori, suggesting a poly-amourus marraige between herself, Lori, and Rick. Lori becomes angry with Carol's actions and storms off. Lori begins to worry about Rick's absense, and Carol comforts her. Lori sees Carol's friendly actions as another romantic advance, and is sickened. This Sorrowful Life Upon Rick's return, the family share a group hug. Lori is shocked about Rick's missing hand, but, he reassures her that he wasn't bitten. Alice checks on Lori's baby and states that everything is going well, but, will not be sure of the date of birth. Hershel later asks Lori if she is worried about the imminent battle between the prison group and Woodbury, but, she states that she isn't worried for the sake of her baby. Rick later confides in Lori about killing a man. The Calm Before Shortly before the assault on the Prison, Lori attempts to reveal the truth about her affair with Shane to Rick, but, he implores her not to, as, like Dale had said, the truth could drive him insane. Lori eventually gives birth to her daughter, Judith, with the help of Alice Warren and Hershel, though it still isn't able to be determined who the father is. She's extremely protective over Judith, devoting nearly all time and energy to her. Made To Suffer When The Governor and his soldiers raid the premises, she and Alice resort to desperate measures to keep Judith alive, by staying inside and having Alice hold Lori at gunpoint to trick a soldier who might be coming in. Rick persuades them to move and get to one of the prison trucks so they can escape. She's in hysterics upon hearing of Tyreese's execution moments before, but Rick forces her to harden up and stay focused on the task at hand. They flee outside, running past bullets and watching people die around them. Death Killed By *The Governor (Caused) While escaping, Carl starts to run too fast and Rick is forced to run faster to catch up with him, leaving some space between him and Lori. Meanwhile, The Governor notices the Grimes family fleeing and orders Lilly to finish them off. *Lilly Caul Seconds later, Lori is shot in the back, killing her. Her body falls on baby Judith, crushing and killing her. Rick and Carl are forced to leave the bodies. Post Death After Lori's death, Rick talks to Lori on the phone three times. In the first conversation Lori mentions there are 14 people where she is. Later she states, "Everyone we lost came here. Everyone is here together."Issue 55, page 12 She's seen once in a nightmare Rick has, and has been referenced many times by him. In Issue 121, Rick finally abandons the phone that he used to communicate with Lori, showing he has decided to let go of her. Killed Victims This list shows the victims Lori has killed: *Judith Grimes (Caused) *Numerous counts of zombies. Relationships Rick Grimes Lori was Rick's wife. They had one child named Carl Grimes, as well as a second child, Judith, which they believe belonged to Shane. Though Lori and Rick's marriage does not appear to have been perfect, they shared a strong bond. When the apocalypse hit, Lori had assumed Rick was dead, which drove her to depression. Their love was rekindled as they were reunited, and Rick did not hold Lori and Shane's affair against her. Lori often fought Rick on his decisions as leader of the group and for putting himself in danger too much, but they loved each other fiercely. Rick spiraled into his own depression following her and Judith's death, but eventually recovered for the sake of Carl, knowing Lori would want him to move on. Carl Grimes Lori's first child and only son, she loved and protected him until her death. Their love is shown for each other several times. For example how Lori protected Carl by leaving his father in the hospital and traveling with Shane to Atlanta or how Carl was complaining about not being able to stay with Carol and play with Sophia, Ben and Billy but stopped when Lori asked him to, not wanting to cause her problems while she was worried about Rick. Lori's death affected Carl greatly, causing him to break down at Rick when they were staying in the abandoned house, blaming him for the deaths of his mother and baby sister. Judith Grimes Lori's second child. Judith's paternity was always in doubt, as Lori had resumed sexual activity with her husband before she realized she was pregnant. However, she and Rick eventually decided that even though the baby likely belonged to Shane, they would raise her like their own and it didn't matter who the father was. Shane Shane was an old friend of the family, having been Rick's partner before the apocalypse. While Rick was comatose, Shane acted as the Grimes family's protector. However, Shane revealed to have been harboring romantic feelings for Lori for quite some time before the apocalypse. Shane assured Lori during her depression that Rick was dead, and to move on. During this time, Shane and Lori, desperate for emotional support, had sex. When Rick returned to the group, however, Lori was ecstatic to see him and quickly broke off her relationship with Shane. She tried to keep her and Shane's affair secret from Rick, ignoring Shane's continued romantic advances and telling him directly that their affair was "a mistake". Shane was driven near-insane over jealousy for Lori and became increasingly aggressive towards her, and even attempted to kill Rick. After Rick buried Shane, Lori spat on his grave. Carol Lori and Carol had a budding friendship throughout their time together. When Carol grew critically depressed, however, she tried to convince Lori and Rick to allow her to "join" their marriage in polygamy, but both Lori and Rick refused. Though Lori was put off by Carol's advances, she and Rick both feared for her sanity, still showing concern for her. Before Carol committed suicide, Carol asked Lori to care for her daughter Sophia. Lori promises, though that responsibility ended up falling to Maggie and Glenn. Tyreese Upon his arrival, Lori seemed to distrust Tyreese, however, she quickly grew some form of respect for him. After his fight with Rick, their relationship took a heavy blow. Upon his death, Lori, like the others, was shocked and saddened to the point where she blamed Rick for not trying save him. Donna Donna, along with Lori and Carol, seemed to have a stable relationship. The trio is seen, for example, laundering and communicating. Lori was also seen to be saddened by Donna's death once inside the RV and was seen hugging her children, Ben and Billy. Patricia Lori and Patricia became friendly after Carol committed suicide. Patricia helped Lori look after the kids and Patricia was also responsible for saving Rick's life. However, their friendship is not given the chance to grow, as both Lori and Patricia are both shot and killed by The Governor's army in Issue 48. Alice Warren Alice talked to Lori often about her upcoming baby. Lori was thankful for her after she saved Rick from blood loss and delivered Judith safely. Alice willingly put herself at risk trying to give cover for Lori and her family during the Governor's final attack, resulting in Alice's death. Appearances Trivia *It is revealed that Lori is 27 years old in the script book however she is older in the TV Series. *Lori was originally going to die in Issue 47, but her death was postponed to Issue 48. *In the original pilot for the Comic Series, Lori was originally supposed to be named "Carol".The Walking Dead Pilot *Lori was the first known woman to give birth in the Comic Series since the start of the outbreak, the second is Maggie Greene. References See also *Issue 48, Trivia section Grimes, Lori Grimes, Lori Category:Novel Characters Category:Atlanta Survivor Camp Category:Deceased Category:Comics Category:The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor